Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2019-01-27 19:35:50.072262

Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2019 January 27

From the Northern to the Southern Cross Image Credit & Copyright: NicholasBuer

Explanation:
There is a road that connects the
Northern to the
Southern Cross
but you have to be at the right place and time to see it.
The road, as pictured here, is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy; the right place, in this case, is dark
Laguna Cejar in
Salar de Atacama of Northern
Chile;
and the right time was in early October, just after sunset.
Many sky wonders were captured then, including the
bright Moon, inside the
Milky Way arch;
Venus, just above the Moon;
Saturn and
Mercury, just below the Moon;
the
Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
satellite galaxies, on the far left;
red airglow near the horizon on the image left;
and the lights of small towns at several locations across the
horizon.
One might guess that composing
this 30-image panorama would have been a serene experience,
but for that one would have required earplugs to ignore the continued
brays of wild
donkeys.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2019-01-27 12:30:02.100586

Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2019 January 27

From the Northern to the Southern Cross Image Credit & Copyright: NicholasBuer

Explanation:
There is a road that connects the
Northern to the
Southern Cross
but you have to be at the right place and time to see it.
The road, as pictured here, is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy; the right place, in this case, is dark
Laguna Cejar in
Salar de Atacama of Northern
Chile;
and the right time was in early October, just after sunset.
Many sky wonders were captured then, including the
bright Moon, inside the
Milky Way arch;
Venus, just above the Moon;
Saturn and
Mercury, just below the Moon;
the
Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
satellite galaxies, on the far left;
red airglow near the horizon on the image left;
and the lights of small towns at several locations across the
horizon.
One might guess that composing
this 30-image panorama would have been a serene experience,
but for that one would have required earplugs to ignore the continued
brays of wild
donkeys.

Explanation:
The dark, inner shadow of planet Earth
is called the umbra.
Shaped like a cone extending into space, it has a
circular cross section most easily seen during a
lunar
eclipse.
For example, on January 21 the Full Moon
slid across the northern half of Earth's umbral shadow,
entertaining
moonwatchers around much of the planet.
In the total phase of the eclipse, the Moon was completely within
the umbra for 63 minutes.
Recorded under clear, dark skies from the
hills near Chiuduno, Italy this composite
eclipse image uses successive
pictures from totality (center) and partial phases
to trace out a large part of the
umbra's curved edge.
Reflecting sunlight scattered by the atmosphere into Earth's shadow,
the lunar surface appears reddened during totality.
But close to the umbra's edge, the limb of the eclipsed Moon shows a
distinct blue hue.
The blue eclipsed
moonlight originates as rays of sunlight
pass through layers high in the upper stratosphere,
colored by ozone that scatters red light and transmits blue.

Explanation: Craters produced
by ancient impacts on the airless Moon have long been a familiar sight.
But only since the 1990s have observers began to
regularly record and study
optical flashes
on the lunar surface,
likely explosions resulting from impacting meteoroids.
Of course,
the flashes are difficult to see against a bright,
sunlit lunar surface.
But during the January 21 total eclipse
many
imagersserendipitously captured a
meteoroid impact flash against
the dim red Moon.
Found while
examining images taken shortly before the total eclipse
phase began, the flash is indicated in the inset above,
near the Moon's darkened western limb.
Estimates based on the flash
duration
recorded by the Moon Impact
Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS)
telescopes in southern Spain
indicate the impactor's mass was about 10 kilograms and created
a crater between seven and ten meters in diameter.

Explanation: Fans of
planet Earth probably recognize the Matterhorn
in the foreground of this night skyscape.
Famed in
mountaineering
history, the 4,478 meter Alpine
mountain stands next to the totally
eclipsed Moon.
In spite of -22 degree C temperatures, the inspired scene was captured
on the morning of January 21 from the mountains near
Zermatt, Switzerland.
Different exposures record the dim red light reflected
by the Moon fully
immersed in Earth's shadow.
Seen directly above the famous Alpine peak,
but about 600 light-years away, are the stars of the Praesepe
or Beehive star cluster also known as
Messier 44.
An added reward to the cold eclipse vigil,
a bright and colorful
meteor flashed
below the temporarily dimmmed Moon,
just tracing the Matterhorn's north-eastern climbing
route along Hornli ridge.

Explanation:
Do you recognize this constellation?
Through the icicles and past the mountains is
Orion, one of the most identifiable star groupings on the sky and an icon familiar to humanity for over 30,000 years.
Orion has
looked pretty much the same during the past 50,000 years and should continue to look the same for many thousands of years into the future.
Orion is quite prominent in the sky this time of year, a recurring sign of (modern) winter in Earth's northern hemisphere and summer in the south.
Pictured, Orion was captured recently above the
Austrian
Alps in a composite of seven images taken by the same camera in the same location during the same night.
Below and slightly to the right of
Orion's three-star belt is the
Orion Nebula,
while the four bright stars surrounding the belt are, clockwise from the upper left,
Betelgeuse,
Bellatrix,
Rigel, and
Saiph.

Explanation:
The Moon slid
through Earth's shadow
on January 31, 2018 in a
total lunar eclipse.
In this time-lapse sequence of that eclipse from Portal, Arizona, USA,
the partial eclipse starts with the Moon high in the western sky.
The eclipse total phase lasted about 76 minutes,
but totality ended after the dark, reddened Moon set below
the horizon.
The upcoming
total lunar eclipse, on the night of January 20/21,
will be better placed
for skygazers
across the Americas, though.
There, all 62 minutes of the total phase, when the Moon is completely
immersed in Earth's dark umbral shadow, will take place with
the Moon above the horizon.
Watch it if you can.
The next
total lunar eclipse visible from anywhere on planet Earth won't
take place until May 26, 2021, and then
the total eclipse will last a mere 15 minutes.

Explanation:
Gocka's, a family nickname for the mountain cabin,
and a wooden sled from a generation past stand quietly under the
stars.
The single exposure image was taken on
January 6 from
Tanndalen Sweden
to evoke a simple visual experience of the dark mountain skies.
A pale band of starlight along the Milky Way sweeps through the scene.
At the foot of Orion the Hunter, bright star Rigel shines just above the
old kicksled's handrail.
Capella, alpha star of Auriga the celestial charioteer,
is the brightest star at the top of the frame.
In fact, the familiar stars of the
winter hexagon and the
Pleiades star cluster can all be found in this beautiful
skyscape from a northern winter night.

Explanation:
Now this was a view with a thrill.
From
Mount Tschirgant
in the
Alps,
you can see not only nearby towns and distant
Tyrolean peaks,
but also, weather permitting, stars, nebulas, and the band of the
Milky Way Galaxy.
What made the arduous climb worthwhile this night,
though, was another peak -- the peak of the 2018
PerseidsMeteorShower.
As hoped, dispersing clouds allowed a picturesque sky-gazing session that included many faint meteors, all while a carefully positioned camera took a series of exposures.
Suddenly, a thrilling meteor --
bright and
colorful -- slashed down right next the nearly
vertical band of the Milky Way.
As luck would have it, the camera caught it too.
Therefore, a new image in the series was quickly taken with one of the
sky-gazers posing on the nearby peak.
Later, all of the images were digitally combined.

Explanation: It can be the driest place on planet Earth, but
water still flows in Chile's Atacama desert, high in the mountains.
After discovering this small creek with running water, the photographer
returned to the site to watch the Milky Way rise in the dark
southern skies, calculating the moment when Milky Way and
precious flowing water would meet.
In the panoramic night skyscape,
stars and nebulae immersed
in the glow along the Milky Way itself also shared that moment
with the Milky Way's
satellite galaxies
the Large and Small
Magellanic clouds above the horizon
at the right.
Bright star Beta Centauri is poised at the very top of the waterfall.
Above it lies the dark expanse of the
Coalsack
nebula and the stars of the Southern Cross.

Explanation:
On January 6 the New Moon rose in silhouette with the Sun
seen from northeastern Asia.
Near maximum, the dramatic partial solar eclipse
is captured in this telephoto view through hazy skies.
In the foreground, the hill top Wanchun pavilion overlooking
central Beijing's popular
Forbidden City
hosts eclipse-watching early morning risers.
This was the first of five, three solar and two lunar,
eclipses
for 2019.
Next up is a
total lunar eclipse
during this month's Full Perigee Moon.
At night on January 21,
that celestial shadow play
will be visible from the hemisphere of planet Earth
that includes the Americas, Europe, and western Africa.

Explanation:
The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs through this
complex
and beautiful skyscape.
Seen toward colorful stars
near the northwestern edge of the constellation
Vela
(the Sails),
the 16 degree wide, 200 frame mosaic is
centered on the glowing filaments of the
Vela
Supernova Remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the
death explosion of a massive star.
Light from the supernova explosion
that created the Vela remnant
reached Earth about 11,000 years ago.
In addition to the shocked filaments of glowing gas, the cosmic
catastrophe also left behind an incredibly dense,
rotating stellar core, the Vela Pulsar.
Some 800 light-years distant, the Vela remnant is likely
embedded
in a larger and older supernova remnant,
the Gum Nebula.
Objects
identified in this broad mosaic include
emission and reflection nebulae, star clusters,
and the remarkable
Pencil
Nebula.

Explanation:
Named for a
forgotten
constellation, the
Quadrantid
Meteor Shower
is an annual event for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers
It usually peaks briefly in the cold, early morning hours of January 4.
The shower's radiant on the sky
lies within the old, astronomically obsolete constellation
Quadrans
Muralis.
That position is situated near the boundaries of the modern
constellations Hercules, Bootes, and Draco.
About 30 Quadrantid meteors can be counted in this
skyscape composed of digital frames recorded in dark and moonless skies
between 2:30am and local dawn.
The shower's radiant is rising just to the right of the Canary
Island of Tenerife's Teide volcano,
and just below the familiar
stars of the Big Dipper on the northern sky.
A likely source of the dust stream that produces
Quadrantid meteors was identified
in 2003
as an asteroid.
Look carefully and you can also spot a small, telltale greenish coma above the
volcanic peak and near the top of the frame.
That's the 2018 Christmas visitor to planet Earth's skies,
Comet Wirtanen.

Explanation:
This was an unusual night to look in the direction of the Bull.
The
constellation Taurus is always well known
for hosting two bright star clusters --
the Pleaides, visible on the right,
and the comparatively diffuse
Hyades, visible on the left.
This night last month, however, was atypically the peak of the
Geminid meteor shower, and so several meteors were caught shooting through the constellation with
parallel trails.
More unusually still,
Comet Wirtanen was drifting through the constellation,
here appearing near the image bottom surrounded by a greenish coma.
The comet was near its brightest as it
sped past the Earth.
The orange star on the upper left is
Aldebaran, considered to be the eye of the Bull.
Aldebaran is the brightest star in Taurus and the 15th
brightest star in the sky.
The featured image is a combination of nearly 800 exposures taken from the
Spanish village
Albany.